Dillard’s and Longmont faced off in District Court on Thursday, with the store saying the city had no right to demand title to its property at the Twin Peaks Mall and had a bad motive for wanting to do so.

The Longmont Urban Renewal Authority hopes to get immediate possession of the store — including a vesting of title — so that mall owner NewMark Merrill Mountain States can begin an $80 million redevelopment of the mall. Dillard’s owns its own building and currently has veto power over any plans to redesign Twin Peaks.

State statute allows title to be vested before a price has been reached on a condemned property. But Dillard’s attorney Leslie Fields argued that the statute was unconstitutional, and that the store had a right to be heard by a jury before surrendering its rights over the property.

“Allowing these rights to be thrown away, we believe, is contrary to the Colorado Constitution and to Colorado jurisprudence,” Fields said.

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